In the field of non-impact printing, the most common types of printers have been the thermal printer and the ink jet printer. When the performance of a non-impact printer is compared with that of an impact printer, one of the problems in the non-impact machine has been obtaining and maintaining the required control of the printing operation. As is well-known, the impact printing operation depends upon the movement of impact members typically by reason of an electromechanical system which is believed to enable the provision of a more precise control of the impact members.
The advent of non-impact printing as in the case of thermal printing brought out the fact that the heating cycle must be controlled in a manner to obtain a maximum number of repeated operations. Likewise, the control of ink jet printing must deal with the problem of maintaining an adequate supply of ink in the print head while pulsing the ink fluid to provide droplets of ink in successive manner during the printing operation.
Representative prior art in the field of ink jet printing includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,409, issued to R. M. Carrell on July 9, 1974, which discloses a rotatable paraboloid-shaped reservoir having an inner container within an outer container and forming a parabolic passageway for supplying ink from the inner container through an orifice and along the parabolic passageway to radially outwardly-directed ink jets. The parabolic passageway prevents the centrifugal force and the pressure head of the stored ink from acting on the ink adjacent the ink jets.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,563, issued to R. L. Cowardin et al. on Dec. 17, 1974, discloses an arcuate printer having a print head pivotable about a central point and printing in oscillating or reciprocating manner on record media formed against an arcuate platen.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,685, issued to K. H. Fischbeck on Feb. 4, 1975, discloses an ink cartridge in the form of a rotationally driven disk member and including a reservoir and ink jets. The reservoir comprises an inner chamber and an outer chamber with openings to allow ink to flow to the jets.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,696, issued to K. H. Fischbeck on Feb. 4, 1975, discloses a disk member on a rotatable shaft and a cavity for ink to be supplied to the ink jet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,773, issued to A. Mizoguchi et al. on Feb. 24, 1976, discloses a fluid chamber which is divided into an outer chamber portion and an inner chamber portion with a channel connecting the portions. The outer portion is provided with an intermediate reservoir connected with a fluid supply and with a discharge channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,272, issued to K. Yamamori et al. on Mar. 29, 1976, discloses vented outer and inner chambers with a channel connecting the chambers and supplying ink to the ink jet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,801, issued to K. Iwasaki on Aug. 30, 1977, discloses an ink supply chamber communicating through orifices with a pressure chamber and an ejection chamber.
And, U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,710, issued to M. Matsuba et al. on May 1, 1979, discloses an electromagnetic cross valve for selectively connecting a nozzle with an ink supply conduit and an ink liquid drain conduit.